Federal
Education Policy and the States, 1945-2009

Introduction:
Federal Education Policy, 1940s

Both the New Deal and
World War II contributed dramatically to the size as well as the
scope of federal activities. The 1940s in particular brought significant
increases in federal aid to education. In 1940, Congress passed
the Lanham
Act, which supported the construction, operation, and maintenance
of school buildings for children whose parents were employed by
the federal government (primarily on military bases). This law set
at least two key precedents. First, it laid the foundation for aid
to federal "impact" areas-aid that was later expanded
under P.L. 81-815 and 81-874 , both of which passed in 1950; these
laws offered general, largely unregulated financial aid to replace
local property tax revenues lost on federally controlled lands.
Second, and less-often noticed, the Lanham Act provided federal
aid for nursery schools and day care for mothers involved in the
war effort; in this way, it established funding for pre-school education
as a legitimate federal concern (though, in later years, as critics
pushed to return educational responsibilities to the states, the
idea of federal aid to early childhood education became harder and
harder to sustain).

In 1944, Congress passed the biggest package of federal aid to education
to date: the Serviceman's
Readjustment Act, commonly known as the G.I. Bill of Rights
(P.L. 78-346). This law entitled veterans who had served at least
ninety days in the armed forces to a year of secondary, special,
adult, or college education, plus an additional month of education
for each month in the service, up to a total of 48 months. Veterans
received $500 in federal aid per year-paid directly to approved
institutions of their choice-and they were free to use this money
to cover tuition, books, supplies, and all applicable fees. They
also received a monthly living allowance. After the war, the G.I.
Bill and federal aid to "impact" areas became the largest sources
of federal support for education. Both programs were extremely popular
among local administrators, because they distributed loosely regulated
grants that could be used to meet virtually any need.

After World War II, the political climate for such aid changed.
Local willingness to accept federal aid gave way to local fears
of "federal control." In 1948, representative Graham
Barden (D-NC) introduced a bill to provide "general aid"
to public schools, but it failed after opponents raised the specter
of "communistic" federal involvement in local schools
as well as the prospect of federal aid going to parochial schools.
Indeed, a highly publicized confrontation in New York between former
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Roman Catholic leader Francis Cardinal
Spellman ultimately killed Barden's bill in 1949. At the height
of the controversy, General Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote from his
post as president of Columbia University in New York to denounce
federal intrusion into public schools, commenting in typical cold
war rhetoric that, "unless we are careful, even the great and
necessary educational processes in our country will become yet another
vehicle by which the believers in paternalism, if not outright socialism,
will gain still additional power for the central government."